The Cave
by kidneyofcapaldi
Summary: When the mission goes awry, humanity's strongest soldiers are stranded in the woods facing unbeatable odds- and worse, each other. Rivamika.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I am trash and should be writing other things but here we are. I missed my readers! Hope you all enjoy!**

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

"Well, fuck."

Levi turned his head and spit a rather large amount of blood out of his mouth, curling his lips in disgust.

Not more than five feet from where he stood, Mikasa rolled painfully onto her back. She took a moment to take inventory of everything that hurt. The back of her skull was buzzing, and just about her whole body throbbed, but nothing seemed indicative of a break.

She tentatively sat up.

"You alright, Ackerman?"

"Yes, Captain."

Mikasa took a quick survey of him, as well. He seemed fine, but he was the most disheveled she had ever seen him. There were about four nasty gashes on his cheeks, his nose, his lip; his jacket was ripped and his 3DMG gear hung from his hip an an unnatural angle. In combination with his lack of cravat, he was almost unrecognizable—barring that familiar deadpan glare.

She was sure she looked about the same. Something warm trickled down from her head, momentarily obscuring her vision. She pressed a hand to her throbbing forehead and wiped blood out of her eyes.

He regarded her, frowning, and looked up. She followed his gaze, craning her neck to get a better look at the towering peak of the cliff.

It had been a considerable distance to fall. They were lucky.

That morning, the Recon Corp had set out on another in a line of countless missions to reach the Jaegers' basement. They had ridden for miles, encountering only a handful of titans, all of which were avoided using Erwin's flare system. Mikasa hadn't even needed to deploy her gear. In fact, it had been the smoothest mission the Corp had embarked on thus far.

They should have known it couldn't go well for long.

As the landscape became more barren, more varied in topography, it was the unspoken understanding of every soldier that no mission had ever made it this far. Predictably, many of them were unprepared to fight in such a venue when eight titans appeared from nowhere.

Chaos exploded. Positioned in the front guard, Mikasa was one of the first to spring into action.

All at once, everything was clearer, sharper. She heard the clicks and whirrs of gear deploying on all sides, smelled the stench of rotting titan breath and felt their heat around her. Her blades sang, soldiers screamed, gaping mouths yawned and meaty hands batted the air in slow motion. Her eyes narrowed.

Eren was in the right flank, Armin in the left. If she killed them all before the back of the formation caught up, they would be safe…

She locked on to the quickest titan first as it moved toward the center of the formation. Mikasa's wire connected with the titan's flesh, jerking her forward and causing her to whip around it at breakneck speed. She forced the torque of the spin into her sword, slicing deep. It collapsed within seconds. She barely had time to land before a wave of hot liquid drizzled over her; above, a man's final screech for help was cut short as a titan bit him clean in half.

Mikasa gritted her teeth, firing a wire at the monster's shoulder. She tore upward, the gear flinging her straight toward the clouds. She passed the monster's head in her ascent. As she reached the peak of her trajectory, she disconnected her wire, intending to let gravity act as her accelerator.

Her climb slowed. For a moment, as she hung in the air, time stopped. She saw the entire battlefield laid out below her like an appalling work of art. Red painted the landscape and saturated her vision. To her surprise, a mere four titans remained—but before her eyes, a squad took another down.

Now there were only three.

Those three, however, had managed to corral the remaining soldiers before a massive cliff.

Gravity re-engaged. Mikasa felt the pull of the earth once more. Just as she began to plunge downward, a flash of jet black hair skirted the corner of her vision.

Captain Levi had seen the tactical danger, as well.

And he was already hurtling toward it.

She spun as she came down on the titan, screaming. The earth rumbled as its body contacted the ground.

Eyes wild, she turned just in time to catch a blur of spinning steel take down another titan.

As the Captain swung toward the final two, his gear made one loud, distinct, _chink._

Her ears, attuned to the noises of battle, caught it before her eyes could. The sound seemed to echo over the clamor of the dying.

His cables went limp. He fell toward the ground, headlong, contacting the dirt and rolling six or seven times before coming to a stop. He scrambled up immediately, still light on his feet after the violent tumble.

He had become the sole occupier of the two titans' attention. They grinned eerily, advancing in unison, clearly excited by what looked like an easy meal.

Hundreds of feet below, the man dug his heels into the dirt. His only weapon was the stub of one shattered sword, no bigger than a steak knife. His teeth clenched in a murderous, wild expression.

Mikasa balked. He wasn't fleeing, but there was no chance he could live—

The rest of the squadron went flying by behind the great monsters.

It hit her. He was acting as a distraction, allowing the rest of the group to escape.

He intended to die.

Her body moved before she could think. She engaged her gear, shooting off at top speed. A part of her knew she would exhaust all her gas, but she didn't care.

The world ripped by her in an indistinct fog. As she neared, she felt herself racing against the looming grasp of the first titan. The shadow fell over her like a blanket, warning her just how little time she had. A snarl tore from her throat. She strained forward, using every ounce of her strength to reach him first.

The Captain didn't see her until she was upon him.

His head turned, his eyes widening briefly as she came crashing into him. Both grunted loudly, the incredible force of the collision causing them to careen uncontrollably forward.

He didn't even have time to reprimand her before they went careening off the side of the cliff.

The tumble lasted forever. Mikasa's gear dug into her hips with every rocky punch. She did her best to curl into a ball, protecting her head and neck from any fatal blows. The world spun painfully, just barely giving her time to hope the Captain had made it. Rolling to a stop on the ground had not been much more pleasant.

Now, from their vantage point at the bottom, the two tensed; a grotesque, swollen head flashed briefly above the precipice.

Mikasa leapt to her feet. Her swords had been ripped from her hands during the violent plunge. A quick appraisal of the gear on her hips told her that it wouldn't be helpful any time soon. She fumbled with the straps, letting the useless metal fall in a heap at her feet.

"The woods. Now," the Captain ordered, detaching his gear at nearly the same moment. The two took off like runners in the final stretch of a race, neither looking back.


	2. Chapter 2

Thunder rumbled distantly as they flew over roots and dirt and leaves. Mikasa's muscles were just beginning to weaken when the Captain gave the signal to stop.

They took a moment to catch their breath, neither speaking for a full minute. The shadows of the trees were lengthening as the sun started to sink below the horizon. The thick canopy above them choked the sun further, letting very little light escape into the forest.

Having caught his breath, Levi turned to face her, pinning her where she stood with a harsh glare.

"What the hell was that?" he demanded.

Her face hardened. She had been expecting this sort of response from her superior. She straightened, steeling herself for whatever else would come out of his mouth.

Adopting the blank stare of a soldier, she answered, "Apologies, Captain. I simply wanted to prevent anymore deaths."

"Oh?" he challenged, crossing his arms. "So you chose to get rid of the one thing keeping those two bastards away from the rest of the group?"

She opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off.

"You were careless. That was one of the most reckless maneuvers I've seen come out of you, Ackerman."

She clenched her fists. After a beat, she said, "With all due respect, sir, we wouldn't last long without Humanity's Strongest Soldier. I wasn't the only one being careless."

He arched an eyebrow. Before he could respond, another concussive blast of thunder shook the earth.

A solid wall of water hit them from above, and the sound of rain pelting leaves deafened them to all sound. In a matter of seconds, Mikasa's hair was soaked and clinging to her neck. Levi swore again, though she could barely hear him over the chaos of the storm. His hair was already plastered to his head, and his jacket had turned three shades darker.

"Come on," he yelled, "Let's find some shelter before we drown."

They traipsed through the woods for at least half an hour. Despite the tree coverage, the driving rain made it difficult to see very far. Mikasa's boots squelched in the freezing mud. She could actually feel the water in her socks weighing her down.

To her slight chagrin, she had to stay close to the Captain. If she fell too far behind, he could disappear into the foliage in an instant. As much as she disliked being stuck in this weather with this particular superior, it would be much worse to be stuck in the forest by herself.

The wings of freedom on the back of his cloak essentially occupied her entire field of vision. For this reason, she noticed the subtle pinch of his shoulders every time lighting flashed or thunder boomed.

Just as she became aware of this, a root caught the tip of her boot, forcing her to stumble. She righted herself immediately, though not without catching sight of a miniscule cave.

" _Captain_ ," she yelled over the cacophony. He stopped, turning toward her. " _Over there_."

He squinted in its direction. They plodded smartly over to it.

The driving rain had obscured Mikasa's vision more than she thought. The cave wasn't more than three feet wide.

The two soldiers paused just a fraction of a second longer than was normal. At this point, however, the rain was coming down so hard, Mikasa felt like miniature icicles were piercing her skin.

Minutes later, they were crammed shoulder to shoulder inside the cave.

Levi sat with one leg extended in front of him, the other slightly bent, his arm draped over his knee. Mikasa hugged both her knees to her chest.

She tried to think back on a point in her life that had been more awkward. The worst she could come up with was the time Eren had barged into her room while she was changing. They'd been about thirteen. It had been an honest mistake, and he hadn't seen anything but her undershirt, but Mikasa had remained in an embarrassed stupor for the better part of a week.

This definitely took the prize.

What was worse, the Captain was completely silent. It was incredibly uncharacteristic. She wished desperately that he would break the uncomfortable quiet with at least one sarcastic jibe, a reprimand, even his trademark "tch" of disgust—but nothing came.

She pulled her sopping wet scarf up to her chin. The warmth of his shoulder was a great comfort in the bitterly cold cave. Against her will, she shivered.

"Take that damn scarf off. You'll die of cold. Not to mention it's filthy."

It was her turn to be silent. She set her mouth in a firm line, brow hardening.

He gave a muted sigh of frustration. They sat noiselessly for another long stretch.

Mikasa lost herself in thought. She was pretty sure the flanks of the formation containing Eren and Armin had circumnavigated the titans, altogether—she and the Captain had made sure of that—but there was still a small voice that nagged her about their safety.

Where were they now? Had the formation stopped to number their losses and regroup? Had they noticed by now that their two greatest fighters were no longer with them? If no one had seen them tumble off the cliff in the chaos of the fight, it would be easy to assume that both of them had been eaten.

Half to herself, she mumbled, "How will we get back to the others…?"

"We can't do shit until the rain slows down. With this visibility, we'd get swallowed whole before we even saw the titans coming."

She watched the rain streaming down in waterfalls at the mouth of the cave.

"The ride around this canyon takes about a week," he continued. "If we can make it through this forest in that time, we should be able to intercept them."

Mikasa nodded, her exhale coming out in a visible puff of air.

"You can last that long without your boyfriend, right?"

She twitched. Heat rushed into her cheeks. He knew exactly how to push her buttons.

Before she could check herself, she retorted, "I don't know, Captain. Can you last that long without your cleaning supplies?"

His eyes settled on her. "Oi, you've got some nerve, Ackerman. Say something like that again and you'll be scrubbing windows until my horse shits rainbows."

She fumed wordlessly. He had the upper hand, and they both knew it.

That was probably why she couldn't stop herself from speaking again.

She fidgeted, realizing that lying down in the small space would not be an option. Leaning against her side of the gave, she turned her head away from him.

"Sorry, Captain. I'll do us both a favor and suppress that nerve next time I have to rescue you."

"Tch," he scoffed, not missing a beat. "Go the fuck to sleep, Ackerman."

She pulled her jacket tighter around her shoulders, resisting the urge to kick the man in his shin. She shut her eyes angrily. Eventually, with the white noise of the rain, she drifted off, her mood plummeting further as she contemplated the situation.

Seven days.

Without gear.

Without weapons.

Stuck with Captain Levi.


End file.
